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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Nick Tyrrell

The two Merseyside towns where voters have just wiped Labour from the map

Two councils in Merseyside will have no Labour representation after voters eliminated them from the council benches.

Elections at borough councils last week saw the party's majority cut across the region, although it only lost its overall control in Wirral .

But Knowsley's town councils also went to the polls - and Labour was completely wiped out in both Prescot and Whiston .

Town councils have far less power than the borough council, which exercises the vast majority of political and financial decisions in Knowsley , but they still make some local decisions.

Labour still holds 37 of the 45 seats on the borough council .

The party lost all their town councillors to the Greens and the Lib Dems, while it also lost its majority on Halewood Town Council as independent candidates took seven of the 12 seats.

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Whiston's 12 town councillors, elected from two wards, are now all Greens.

In Prescot, there are now seven Greens and five Lib Dems .

Knowsley Council building (Copyright Unknown)

The towns also rejected Labour candidates at this year's borough council elections .

Prescot's two wards elected a Lib Dem and a Green, while Whiston & Cronton also sent a Green councillor to the borough council.

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And one of Halewood's wards elected an independent, with the other still voting for Labour.

However because borough councillors are elected in cycles, all those wards do still have Labour councillors elected in previous years.

Speaking at the election count for the borough council, Green leader Kai Taylor said the party would continue to target Labour seats.

Councillor Taylor, who represents Prescot South, said: "You need 20 more councillors to take control of the council and I don't think that is out of our grasp."

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Labour leader Graham Morgan said the Greens had continued to use the borough's historic issue with green spaces to peel votes off Labour.

A plan to sell off all or part of 17 parks in the borough for housing development was ditched a year ago.

Councillor Morgan said: "The Green Party have opened up the issue of our green spaces not being safe.

"Our parks are safe, they are not for sale and they will not be for sale - that is a decision I made last year."

Labour held its majority on Knowsley Town Council, which covers Knowsley Village and Stockbridge Village .

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